Listening to all the things you can't hear...

“Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.”
― A.A. Milne

So this little photo diary has been on a bit of a break it seems! Life has got in the way a bit, sometimes in a bad way, sometimes in a good way. I guess a break from all things online isn't a bad thing- but I have missed taking more photos. Today I finally got a film developed, which had been languishing in my camera for ages. Rather than fretting over them, am just using these to break the creative ice. And yes, they are all about the food :) Very soon there will be big changes in my life and while that's a little scary, it's also an Adventure. To quote some more Winnie-the-Pooh (because why not), “When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” {A.A. Milne}.

It's time to put my Big Boots on!

Kiwi Summer on Film Again {Wellington edition}

Long walks with good friends, excellent picnic tins, strange little buildings, dazzling, bleach-everything sun, not-as-red-as-I-thought rocks and the promise of a seal colony {who knows, we got too hot and turned back}. Excellent weekend Kiwi-ness. Also, this was apparently where Frodo, Sam and Gollum reached the Black Gate in The Lord of the Rings. So I've picnic-ed at the Black Gate! Choice, as they say here :)

So this is Christmas

Surf Santa!

I missed my family this Christmas but: my favourite memory is of being in the surf on Christmas day- the end of Cyclone Evan was affecting the North Island but it was actually incredibly humid and stuffy and the ocean was like bathwater. Not many people get to see a surf-lifesaver Santa and go frolic in the Pacific on Christmas afternoon, so for that I am very grateful...

A Kiwi Summer

2013 has already got off to a wonderful start with friends in Wellington and now my parents are here to visit- it is so so so exciting to have them here :) and to enjoy some Kiwi summer road trips- beaches, walks, swims, ice-creams and sitting under the pohutakawa {the New Zealand Christmas tree}. Hurrah!

Goat Island Reserve

First day of spring! Found a film with these on...can't wait to go snorkelling and swimming in the sea soon :)

Gannets

Expired Kodak Portra + winter sunshine {which has disappeared in the time it took to develop film!! Grr}

Delicate

52 Projects Week 15

I don't know how ethereal this is, but it is for me- and it's a place to go when you're feeling delicate, rain or shine.

Tramping...

The glorious state of my shoes

...tramping aka hiking is some kind of Kiwi obsession. I'm English and we imagine country walks as just that- a walk, a stroll, maybe you have to climb over a fence....but in New Zealand a 'walk in the bush' is some kind of athletic feat! Last week I went on a winter tramp in the Waitakeres...while it was something of a mudbath and a scramble over tree roots and round hillsides, it was quite stunning, to be completely in the middle of quiet native bush, with tuis singing, and really only a half hour or so drive out of the city...and then emerging down on Piha beach, with not a soul in sight apart from us. Beautiful. Never believe a Kiwi when they classify a walk as an 'easy tramp' though ;)

These are my colours of a Kiwi winter- lush green and black sands.

        Op-shopped camera, expired portra film...was afraid I'd lose my 'good' camera in the mud!

Evening creeps in...

I have not been actively trying to take photos recently, just to feel a bit inspired. Lately I've had a film camera in my bag, with some bargain expired Kodak Portra film inside. I tend to think, meh, there's nothing to take photos of but actually the here-and-now is sometimes quite nice :) At the moment I pretty much always miss the 'golden hour' but I think I quite like the 'spooky, shadowy, light is about the disappear {quarter-}hours' just as well :)

This photo is still my favourite shadow shot though :)

Sunday afternoon

With every small disaster I’ll let the waters still Take me away to some place real 
{Gabrielle Aplin: Home}

Listening to Gabrielle Aplin and The Jezabels. Thinking of long walks in winter sunshine. Reading Game of Thrones  and Wolf Hall- again {to avoid buying the sequel just yet when I have so many books on the go!). Where does the time go on quiet Sunday afternoons?!

Where We Meet

I do enjoy taking pictures of my breakfast/ brunch, it's true....:) But weekend breakfasts are the perfect time to catch up with people. This week, I am also beginning to value my own day-to-day breakfast more- I suppose catching my own breath! It's a chance to press 'pause'- porridge, reading, 5 minutes of peace and quiet- a good by-product of boot camp I think! {which obviously also doesn't prohibit me from parmesan scrambled eggs & roast tomato...just means that I enjoy it more! :)}  
-as inspired by the projects over at 52 Photo Projects :)

Rangitoto ♥

Seeing Rangitoto in the distance means I'm Auckland-home :)

A Ray Of Sunshine

I love this prompt. I've tried to fill this week with some metaphorical sunshine, even if we have only autumn sunshine outside. I love this time of year however, where there are dazzling days but cooler, crisper mornings which necessitate a big woollen scarf and make you want to gulp the air in while walking to work {or that part might be just me!}.
 I have tried to challenge myself this week. We shall see how these things turn out but one of them has been starting a boot camp. I have never done such a thing before and have run the gauntlet from pain, disbelief, to actually feeling quite good. It's only week 1 though! Hopefully, now I have said it in public, I'll be shamed into finishing ;)

Reflections

...I wasn't the only one obsessed with reflections in the swimming pool! {He's staring me out as I interrupted his refreshing drink as well....!}

Milford Sound - on film

There's not much I can say about Milford Sound without using too many superlatives, but majestic is the word. It has been one of those places which match up to the beauty you imagine before you visit. The 5 hour trip from Queenstown in itself is spectacular- the road from Te Anau through Fjordland National Park, cutting down through the Homer Tunnel, is the only way in/out...and this is the "accessible fjord". Our 2 hour boat trip, sometimes with the old sails up, was glorious, going right out into the Tasman and back, nosing into waterfalls and past sleepy seals and watching the sun start to go down over Mitre Peak. My photos are all quite sun-bedazzled but I don't care- and the South Island is pretty much made for Kodak Portra :)

Queenstown on Film

I love holidays. Sometimes they are just what you need. I have a whole heap of photo memories- alot of which are from my favourite film camera. Kodak Portra + the South Island are a match made in heaven :) This is the view over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu from our first morning. The weather was this dazzling throughout the week too.

Long long weekends

This could have been one of those weekends where stresses piled up and overwhelmed the break. It almost was. Then the sun came out today. Brunch, friends, reading on the beach and a swim in the sea. Swimming in the ocean can make many a trouble fade away.

I finally parted company with the addictive The Hunger Games and re-read Maeve Binchy's Copper Beech for the first time in years as a perfect antidote, like pulling on an old jumper. Have also been reading One Day, in good ol'fashioned book form, much-recommended by so many people. I can't say I'm really fussed with it so far...a huge sweeping non-statement I know, but it's just a bit meh, well-written but I don't much like the characters in the way I think I'm supposed to. Perhaps it will grow on me.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012! 2011 has not always been all that flash, but looking at some of my favourite photos is a good reminder of all the amazing times and places seen too (and the fact I adventured to the other side of the world from home!). PLUS I started this blog as a project and kept it up and re-dsicovered my love of film :) 
I hate resolutions so just... here's to having a good year xxxx

Piha Love

As the weather gets nicer and nicer, I can't wait to spend more time here.

Looking up

From a colour film just back...brilliant blue skies must mean summer is here!

These are some near-expired Kodak Portra, Lomo-style....I don't know what possessed me, it kind of felt like going to a festival in your best designer shoes! :) I was hobbling around injured at the time and didn't want to carry my big SLR or even film compact (as it is old and clunky) and I didn't have any other film....a bit of a will-it-come-out-or-will-I-waste-my-expensive-film gamble. I quite like these though!

For an awesome Christmas present for a good cause see the link on Amanda's blog today here. The Epic Thanks website is here.